Posts mistakenly link “five undersea volcanoes” to the earthquake in the southern Philippines

Copyright © Agence France-Presse 2017-2024. All rights reserved.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said there are no active undersea volcanoes near a coastal town in the southern part of the archipelago nation, contradicting Facebook posts that falsely claimed it caused a strong earthquake in early December 2023. It is the movement of the Philippine Trench under the sea.

“There are five active volcanoes near Hinatuan under the sea, that's why,” reads the caption in Visayan on the map posted on Facebook here on December 3, 2023.

The map – which has been shared more than 5,000 times – allegedly highlights five “active volcanoes” off Hinatuan, a town located in the southern Philippine province of Surigao del Sur.

The text overlaid on the map translates as: “Lord help us, there appear to be five volcanoes near Hinatuan!”

Hinatuan is located about 30 kilometers (18 mi) from the epicenter of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the Philippines on December 2, 2023.

At least three people were killed and eight others were injured as a result of the earthquake. Aftershocks exceeded magnitude 6.0 and briefly triggered tsunami warnings.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken on March 20, 2024

The same photo was shared alongside a similar false claim elsewhere on Facebook here , here and here .

But a representative of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) — a government agency that provides information on earthquakes and volcanic eruptions — told AFP on March 19, 2024, that the posts “have no scientific basis.”

“There are no active volcanoes”

Phivolcs said there are no active underwater volcanoes near Hinatuan, adding that it would be “impossible” for volcanoes to form near an active trench (archived link).

“The statement in the post is false,” he said in an email.

She added that the December 2, 2023 earthquake “was caused by the movement of the Philippine Trench.”

Agence France-Presse was unable to find the source of the map used in the false publications. However, it is consistent with images on My Earthquake Alerts, a mobile monitoring app (archived link).

Here's a comparison screenshot between the map in the wrong posts (left) and the satellite view in my earthquake alerts (right):

Screenshot comparison between the map in the wrong posts (left) and the satellite view in My Earthquake Alerts (right)

Geologist Lekha Minimo, director of the Resilience Institute at the University of the Philippines, told AFP on March 18, 2024, that the map used in the false publications does not show the confirmed locations of active volcanoes.

She noted that Phivolcs is assessing whether the volcano — which can also trigger earthquakes due to stirring of magma and volcanic fluids — is active (archived link).

“When they list a volcano as active, it means there is a confirmed record of an eruption or radioactive dating of volcanic material,” she said. “As far as we know, there is nothing in that area.”

Phivolcs notes that the closest active volcano to Hinatuan is Leonard Knyasev Volcano, about 110 kilometers (68 miles) south of the city (archived link).

Misinformation often arises in the wake of natural disasters in the Philippines, which is regularly rocked by earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that extends from Japan across Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Basin.

AFP has previously exposed false posts about disasters in the archipelagic nation here , here , here and here .

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